So today was Andi's yearly cardiology check-up. We headed up to OHSU for our Echo, and then we went onto meeting our cardiologist. It was 9:30 in the morning when I shopping for parking, and all the places were taken, even my usual hidden gem of a parking area. I had to get a slip and park in the main garage. I asked if they were having a party and the parking attendant seemed equally surprised by the amount of traffic they were enduring. As I drove to the overflow parking lot, I considered it a sign that our luck was changing, as I haven't parked in there since Andi was a fetus. So we parked and I carried Andi, my backpack purse, the diaper bag, and her walker to the end of our level looking for the elevators. As I almost got to the end, I saw a sign saying the elevators were behind me. So we turned around. We got to the elevators and I questioned my sanity, and strength. We rode up with another family and they got off on four, I went up to seven. I figured it was the 7th floor that had the bridge that walked over to the children's hospital. We got off that floor and saw absolutely no signs, no directions, nothing. So we got back on the elevator and went down to four. That took us through a hot tunnel with signs to OHSU, but I really just wanted to go to the children's hospital. I ended up getting back on the elevator and returned to the second floor. At this point my arm was dead and I decided we must have her stroller. So, I got out her stroller and packed it full of all the crap I was carrying -- including folding up her walker and hanging it off the handles of the stroller. I secured Andi into the stroller and we ended up walking out of that parking lot hell of confusion. By walking back to the end where I started and saw the exit as soon as I rounded the corner. Ugh. So, at this point I'm pretty worn out and very warm. We have to navigate a very odd few things including getting some elevator doors nearly closing on the stroller, and one of the three most busiest elevators I've ever endured, but we made it.
Our echo went swimmingly well, especially after I pulled out the phone for Andi pants to play with. Once distracted by the app's on the phone, she was no longer interested in grabbing the ultrasound wand. She did great and her tech, Randy was really impressed by Andi. She's a charmer!
After the echo, we went down one floor to the clinics. We checked her in and I expanded her walker so she could walk around a bit. She walked over and said "hi!" to the fish, and enjoyed the plethora of bubbles the volunteer was putting into the air around her. After that, it was time for a much-needed snack. We grubbed on some food and were ushered into a room shortly after. We were weighed, measured and updated. She weighed in 23 lbs, 2 oz's, but they always seem to have a lower weight than Kaiser! I wasn't too sure about the accuracy of her height measurement, because I don't think she was at the top of the device. Paperwork shows, 2' 9.07". We finished with the PA and a few minutes later Dr Kelly appears. He is very animated with her and she seems to like him. He kept telling her what a big girl she was... at the end of the appointment, I mentioned 'do you remember how small she was?' and held out my hands to indicate how much she's grown. I mean, she's still super small, but compared to even a year ago?! She's grown a lot. So basically, the echo showed she still has mild to moderate valve regurgitation, but it's more on the "mild" side than the "moderate" side. Everything looks good and he's optimistic that she won't require any more surgery. We're to continue with the Enalipril, which helps reduce pressure in the heart, to help ease it's work. He increased the dosage based on her weight gain, and sent us off with a chorus of "See You Next Year!"
After that appointment, we rode up two floors and landed at nine! We walked the bridge into OHSU, went to get another "scooby snack" and marched through the busiest floor in OHSU's main hospital. We walked across and down the hall and landed at the Physician's Pavilion, where we had our third appointment of the day, audiology. This was Andi's follow-up appointment to getting her hearing aid. She was pretty crabby at this point and wasn't even all that thrilled to see who she was pretty smitten with just two weeks prior. We sat and ate another snack, then I had her use her walker to the children's area, where Andi made a friend who wore a cochlear implant. He was much younger than Andi and almost as big as her. It was neat to watch her interact or even study another kid, as I don't normally get to see that. The kid ended up totally falling off his chair and landing on a book. He started crying hard. His Mom tried to comfort him and Andi was so upset that he was upset, that she started crying. It was pretty cute. She was so charming apparently, that when the audiologist came to take us in for testing, the kid was crawling toward her and freaking out. His Mom said he has some separation issues, but it was pretty sweet.
Andi did really well on the minimal amount of hearing testing they could do. Aided, with verbal commands, she blew them away and tested just below 'normal'. They hadn't yet really seen that, so it was nice. But, Andi was pretty worn out at this point, so she wouldn't sit still for much.
We headed home and although she was exhausted, she still took awhile to get to sleep. Now, two hours later, I'm having trouble stirring a Bean!
No comments:
Post a Comment